Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: ChrisBolt

An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 2 – Everyone has presuppositions.

By C.L. Bolt

Presuppositions are beliefs that people take to be the case as they come to some other belief or piece of evidence. A person who comes to the barber shop with a credit card and wants a haircut presupposes that the barber shop accepts credit cards as a means of payment. Note that presuppositions might be true or false in this sense. To ”presuppose” something is to “suppose” that something “beforehand;” “pre-suppose.”

People have all sorts of presuppositions as you can likely imagine. However when we speak of presuppositions in this treatment of covenantal apologetics we will speak …

January 24, 2011
An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 1 – There are two worldviews.

By C.L. Bolt

There are only two worldviews. Within these two worldviews, or at any rate within one of them, is a whole plethora of other entities usually referred to as wordviews. A worldview is a network of presuppositions, beliefs, concepts, ideas, etc. through which an individual or individuals view the world. Every person has a worldview; every person has a network of presuppositions and beliefs by which he or she views the world. By viewing the world here I mean thinking in terms of what is right and wrong, good and bad, logical and illogical, sensical and nonsensical, worthwhile …

January 22, 2011
An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics – Introduction

By C.L. Bolt

What I endeavor to accomplish in the following pieces is not to provide an exhaustive account of all things presuppositional but to grant the readers a very basic level knowledge of Van Tillian presuppositionalism also known as Covenantal Apologetics without fancy terminology or at least with definitions when technical language is used. My hopes are to write something merely from memory as opposed to turning to sources and then collecting them in a Works Cited or Bibliography. I don’t mean to go back and correct much of what I write or to answer objections that people might …

January 22, 2011
Does the Triune God of Scripture Exist? Jamin Hubner vs. Ben Wallis

Jamin Hubner has made public his debate with Ben Wallis here and Ben Wallis has done so as well and reviewed the debate here. You can download or listen to the debate here or here and apparently there is a transcript of the debate here. Don’t forget to check out the debate that I had with Ben Wallis here if you have not already and to take a look at the subsequent discussion regarding that debate here and here and here and here.

That should keep people busy until I get the time to review the Hubner …

January 17, 2011
Dear Eldnar

The following comment and response may be found on this post.

Hi there,

Some would take a leap and state that “this cause is God”, but such a leap is unwarranted.

*GASP* I’ve only heard two people *ever* try to say that the uncaused cause is not God, and you are the second of the two. Here’s what happened to the first person:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCUE10dY3Rc

There is nothing in the premises of the argument that necessarily leads to the conclusion that the cause of the universe is God.

True. But it points to God “beyond reasonable doubt”. A person can
…

January 16, 2011
Answering the Argument from Horrific Suffering 4

Argument from Horrific Suffering

The exchange has taken place as follows: The Argument from Horrific Suffering for the Non-Existence of God (Mitch) / Answering the Argument from Horrific Suffering (Chris) / Bolt and Horrific Suffering (Mitch) / Answering the Argument from Horrific Suffering 2 (Chris) / Bolt and Horrific Suffering II (Mitch) / Answering the Argument from Horrific Suffering 3 (Chris) / Bolt and Horrific Suffering III (Mitch) / …Answers the Argument from Horrific Suffering (ZaoThanatoo).

Mitch notes that I am still challenging premise (4) of the following argument:

Horrific Suffering (def.) = that most awe-full form of suffering that
…

January 14, 2011
closed-minded, dogmatic, fundy Paul Manata engages open-minded, free-thinking, rational atheists

Enjoy.

Original post here.…

January 14, 2011
ZaoThanatoo Answers the Argument from Horrific Suffering (Guest Post)

Argument from Horrific Suffering

The Argument from Horrific Suffering for the Non-Existence of God (Mitch) / Answering the Argument from Horrific Suffering (Chris) / Bolt and Horrific Suffering (Mitch) / Answering the Argument from Horrific Suffering 2 (Chris) / Bolt and Horrific Suffering II (Mitch) / Answering the Argument from Horrific Suffering 3 (Chris) / Bolt and Horrific Suffering III (Mitch).

Chris Bolt and Mitch Leblanc have been carrying on a discussion surrounding J. L. Schellenberg’s Antitheistic Argument from Horrors. The full exchange (to date) is linked here. As I’m occasionally wont, I’d like to throw my hat …

January 13, 2011
Answering the Argument from Horrific Suffering 3

Argument from Horrific Suffering

Mitch Presents the Argument

Chris Responds to the Argument

Mitch Responds to Chris

Chris Responds to Mitch

Mitch Responds to Chris Again

In my last response I argued that Mitch did not provide support for (4):

(4) Necessarily, if God exists, there is horrific suffering only if its prevention would prevent there being finite persons who realize their deepest good.

Mitch suggests that he has offered the following as justification for accepting (4) as true:

Looking at an analogous instance, it seems obvious that something has gone wrong when we are saying of the parent that
…

January 13, 2011
Dogmatism, Philosophy, and Evolution

Yesterday I received a copy of the Southern Seminary Magazine for Winter 2011 in the mail. You may obtain a copy by clicking here. The cover of the magazine is black and has Ex Nihilo printed in bold capital letters across the bottom. No doubt in light of recent controversy involving especially President R. Albert Mohler Jr. and the BioLogos Foundation the issue focuses upon the subject of origins.

A few points made by philosopher Mark Coppenger in his article, “Evolution and Creation in Higher Education” on pages 36-38 are worth repeating in an effort to reconsider the dogmatic …

January 12, 2011